As an American Indian of mixed blood (my Certificate of Degree of
Indian Blood says I'm 3/8s, but my reality is a bit more complex than
that), I know many other mixed-blood Indians. They, like me, have run
into conflict on both sides of the racial divide.

Not the least of this is the "you don't look Indian" remark,
something that happens a lot to those of us with lighter skin. When the
members of my Seminole family used to come together for reunions, the
skin colors of the 25 or so people who showed up—all of us closely
related by blood—went from very light to as dark as Michelle Obama, a
product of the tribe's long history of intermarrying not only with other
tribes but also with whites and blacks.

Appearance is often a poor judge of someone's racial background. Take
the Dawes Rolls, for instance. These were established by the government
in the late 1800s to determine who among the "Five Civilized Tribes"
were Indian and, therefore, entitled to an allotment of land. (These
allotments were a means of breaking up the tribes and grabbing "surplus"
tribal land. Nearly three-fourths of the land in Indian hands prior to
1887 had been expropriated via this means by 1935.)

The determination of whether somebody was an Indian or not for the
Dawes Rolls was accomplished in many instances by a white bureaucrat
sitting at a table and looking at the person for half a minute. Thus
were families split up. Sometimes brothers and sisters with the same
father and mother were categorized differently, one an Indian, another
not. It was just one more pernicious practice of a pernicious law.

Historically, there have been two different rules for Indians and
African Americans. For the latter, it's the "one-drop rule" actually
codified into law at one time in Louisiana. Any African American blood
at all and you were black. For Indians, something almost opposite has
been the case. If you weren't a full blood, then you were not viewed as a
"real Indian." Half breed
was a common perjorative term even for people quite a bit younger than
I. During my 16 years in the American Indian Movement, I probably had to
explain a couple of hundred times why my phenotype doesn't match what
most people—both Indian and non-Indian—think my genotype should show.

But looks are far from the only issue.

As Watanabe points out in her video, mixed-race Americans—even when
they are the same mix—are affected quite differently by how that mixed
racedness is seen by people we come into contact with. Although there
are stereotypes specific to our groups, we're unique. The various
cultures of our ancestors plus our everyday life determines that
uniqueness. We're blended, but even among people of the same blending,
how prejudice against mixed-race people plays out is not
one-dimensional.
Watanabe's video offers people who want to confront their prejudices with an upbeat lesson on how to get started.Via - Daily Kos